The death of our Lord Jesus Christ is the most important fact in history. It is the most significant fact revealed in Holy Scripture. It is the fundamental, essential fact of our holy faith. All the hopes of sinners for all eternity hang upon the truth revealed in Holy Scripture concerning the death of God's dear Son as our substitute. If that which is written in the Scripture is not true, then there is no hope for any man. If that which is written in the scriptures concerning the accomplishments of the Son of God at Calvary is true, then certainly there is hope for sinners such as we are. And it is most certainly true.

Now, it shouldn't surprise us, considering the importance of this fact, that it is put beyond all dispute by God's providence not only put beyond dispute by revelation, but put beyond dispute, beyond the possibility of even a remote question by any reasonable human being providentially. In the scripture we have before us this morning, in Mark chapter 15, we see how the Lord God arranged for the death of His Son to be attested by three distinct groups of people who witnessed everything that transpired from his arrest, his mock trial, his humiliation, his sufferings, the three hours, darkness, the conversation between the son and the father, when the father would not speak, but the son spoke to the father in behalf of his people. All that transpired, these three groups of people observed. and these three groups of people testified to. So they put these things beyond the slightest possibility of even question.

Now there's a reason for this. The Jews of our Lord's day and just after his day, and many scoffers up until this day, even this hour, would tell us that the Lord Jesus did not really die after all. After all, he just passed out from all of the fatigue and the suffering and the anguish, and everybody thought he was dead. But in this passage before us, the centurion, not one, but a whole band of Roman centurions said he died. It was their responsibility to see to it that he died. They were under command and strict orders that he die, and they all testified to it. The women who followed the Lord Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem and who observed these things from a distance, they all acknowledged and testified to his death. And the disciples who finally buried our Savior in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, they testified that he was dead.

Now, these three groups of people could not possibly have been mistaken, not all three of them. They could not all have reported the wrong thing, even though it would cost them greatly to do so. These three groups of people had nothing to gain, and yet everything to lose if they had attested that this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, had indeed died when he had not. And so these three groups of people stand without any possibility of contradiction.

Now, having said that, I want to talk to you this morning about the burial of our Savior. As we look at Mark chapter 15, verses 39 through 46, in this last paragraph, there are four things distinctly set before us.

First, in verse 39, I want to call your attention to this amazed centurion. When the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, He said, truly, this man was the Son of God. Now, this centurion was a Roman soldier who had been appointed as the head of a band of soldiers. If you compare Matthew's account with what we've read here, you'll see that there was a band of soldiers who were under the care and supervision of this centurion. It was the task of this band of soldiers to crucify the Son of God and to watch him. Watch him carefully, lest anyone should come and take him down for pity's sake from that horrid cross until he had died. Or anyone should come to offer any comfort or assistance to him in his death. So these men, when they had nailed him to the tree, they sat down and they just watched. That was their business. That was their job.

Matthew tells us that there were many with him watching the Lord Jesus. These men united in their hellish mockery of the Son of God. They were united in humiliating Him and tormenting Him. When Pilate had delivered Jesus to the soldiers, these are the men to whom he delivered Him. These men stripped the Lord Jesus naked. They beat Him. They spit on Him. They put a crown of thorns on His head and a purple cloth about Him and mocked Him with a reed scepter in His hand and said, Hail King. They put his own clothes on him, led him through the streets of Jerusalem, nailed him up to the cursed tree, and they watched him. They watched him.

And when they heard all that had transpired, when they observed the darkening of the sun, the quaking of the earth, the opening of the graves, they said unanimously, this man was the son of God.

Now this centurion and his company teach us two things of great importance. First, the centurions placed as they were by God's providence verified to Pilate and to all reasonable people the fact of our Lord's death at Calvary. No question about it. He didn't just pass out. He didn't just swoon. He didn't just give us an example. He died as our substitute. He died under the curse of God's law as a cursed thing hanging on the tree.

Look in verse 44. Pilate marveled when Joseph came to crave the body of the Lord Jesus. Pilate marveled. How can this be? If he were already dead, how could he already have died? It takes longer than that for a man to die by crucifixion. Even this excruciating death was intended to be so terribly painful because it was a very lingering death. Men could hang on the cross for days at a time. Well, Pilate said, how could he be dead after such a short time? And he called the centurion, and he asked the centurion whether he had been any while dead. Is he sure enough dead? And when he knew, you see that? Pilate was satisfied. When he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.

This man was called before Pilate. Pilate said, now, are you sure he's dead? Are you sure this man's dead? I can almost hear the trembling voice of that soldier as he's giving report. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure. We heard every word he spoke. The sun was darkened and he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken us? We heard him cry out, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. We heard him cry, I thirst. It's all being run with a sponge and put vinegar on it, gave it to him to drink. We heard him as he spoke to that other fellow hanging on the tree there beside him. Today, thou wilt be with me in paradise.

And then we heard the strangest thing. We heard this man hanging on the tree. He said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. And he said, Governor Pilot, I saw something I've never seen before, an astonishing thing. This man, by his own power, breathed out his life. He breathed out his life. And when he did, just before he breathed out his life, he cried, it is finished, and the earth shook beneath us, and the graves were opened around us.

And then the time came, Jordan, came and you said for us to go break the legs of the men, make certain they were dead, and we went around with our mallet, and we crushed the legs of this thief over here, and we crushed the legs of this thief over here. And we came to this man, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. He was dead already. But just to make sure, One of my men took his spear and shoved it right through his heart, and water and blood came gushing out. Yeah, he's dead. He's dead.

When he got done, the scriptures tell us Pilate knew it. Pilate knew it. And I'm here to tell you that any man who denies these facts would just as reasonably deny any fact of history. These things are established factually. But there's more here than just the establishment of facts. This centurion also shows us a demonstration of the fact that there is a repentance to be repented of. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 7 for a moment. Let me spend a few minutes here.

This centurion was convicted. He was convicted of what he had done. He was covered with the blood of one whom he himself declares is the Son of God. But his conviction was a legal conviction. He had sorrow. I have no doubt for what he did, but his sorrow was only a trembling, fearful, legal sorrow. It was not spiritual conviction. It was not saving conviction. It was not saving sorrow. It was not saving repentance. It was the repentance of the world. Let me see if I can illustrate it for you.

You take a child, a boy, he gets caught doing something. He knows he's not supposed to do it. And as a young child, tenderhearted, sensitive conscience, he gets caught. He may even be sorry he did something because his conscience just burns him before he ever gets caught. But as he gets older, gets a little more experienced at silencing his conscience, doesn't bother him anymore. And the only time he ever regrets doing anything is when daddy catches him. because he knows he's going to get blistered. That's the only time he ever gets, he's ever sorry for anything is when he got his hand in the cookie jar and you're standing there with a switch in your hand. That's the only time he ever gets sorry for anything. His repentance, yes. He's convicted, yes. He's sorry he did it, yes. But only because of legal dread. Nothing more, nothing less.

That same repentance is what the whole religious world plays on to get folks to act religiously. The whole religion, preachers everywhere, try their best, somebody gets in trouble. I recall several years ago, a lady called me one night, middle of the night, she wanted me to go see her son. She said, he's in jail. I believe he's ready for the Lord to deal with him. And I said, let's wait a little while and see. Oh, what do you mean? We're not ambulance chasers. I'm not interested in getting another notch on the totem pole. I'm not interested in getting somebody else to make a face to face so you'll look, oh, look what we're doing now for Jesus. I'm interested in your soul. I'm interested in the souls of men and the glory of God. I'm not interested in getting you religious. Oh, I want you to come to Christ to know the son of God. And so we'll just wait. We'll preach the gospel and wait, preach the gospel and pray. But we're not going to pump decisions out of folks. Look here in 2 Corinthians 7 in verse 10. Let me show you what I'm talking about. The apostle writes to these Corinthians, he said, I meant to make you sorry, and I'm thankful that your sorrow is a godly sorrow, a sorrow that has been brought in you by God. He says in verse 10, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world worketh death. The sorrow of the world just produces death. Eternal death, everlasting death in hell.

Brother Gary was pointing out the other night after the service at Passage, we're talking about the Pharisees, the religious folks of the world, they encompass land and sea to make one proselyte. When they've done so, they've made him twofold more the child of hell than he was before. That's just exactly what Paul's talking about. They get him a religious notion. They get him some religious convictions and religious fear, some religious dread, some religious guilt. And they make him twofold more the child of hell than he was before, because now he thinks got everything sewed up.

And this is what I want you to see. Legal fear, the fear of death, the fear of judgment, the fear of damnation in hell is not repentance. It just is. It just isn't. I've told you this many times, it'll bear repetition. In fact, years ago, this has been a long time ago, first year or two I was here in Danville, been 18, 19 years ago, all the preachers in town, conservatives and liberals all got together and went out here to Boyle County High School, got the high school admitted it, to show a movie called The Burning Hell. And they called me up and wanted me to join hands with them. I said, no. Why wouldn't you do that? I said, because you can't scare the hell out of folks. You can't do it. You can't do it. You can scare them, but hell's in them, and only God can take it out. Only God can. Nobody's ever been saved in such a mess. It just makes a mockery of God, the gospel in men's souls. It only destroys men's souls and makes them religious men who are deceived with religion.

That's not Holy Spirit conviction. That's not true God-given repentance. True repentance, true conviction is much more than a sense of guilt and terror. True conviction is a sorrow for sin. It is like David in Psalm 51, taking sides with God against yourself. Say, God, if you kill me, you're right. If you send me to hell, that's what I deserve. If you destroy my family, I've earned it. If you destroy everybody around me, I've caused it. Lord, you're just when you judge. taking sides with God against yourself. More than that, it is an acknowledgement that you deserve yourself to go to hell and much, much more.

True repentance arises from the revelation of Christ in your heart and the accomplishments of Christ upon Mount Calvary as the center substitute. Now, Merle, that's where it is. That's where it is. Let me show you from the book. Turn to Zechariah chapter 12. Zechariah chapter 12. True repentance is the blessed persuasion of sin forgiven, righteousness accomplished, and judgment finished in a substitute.

He said, but preacher, I remember when I was saved, man, I was scared to death of going to hell. I can't remember a time, buddy, when I wasn't scared of going to hell. I had nightmares about going to hell when I was six, seven years old. I was being as hell knew I deserved to go to hell. That's just fact. I was just aware of it. I was scared to death of judgment. Some nights I couldn't sleep because I was scared I might fall off into hell. And it went on for years and years and years. But that's not repentance. That's not repentance. That's man's sorrow of the world.

Look here in Zechariah 12. Here's true repentance. Verse 10, God says, I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem. That's my chosen elect people. I will pour the spirit of grace and supplication. Now, this is when Lindsey Campbell began to pray, really to pray, when God poured his spirit on them. Not until then. Until then, we said our prayers. Until then, we said the kind of prayers we were taught to say, and we prayed like folks who were scared. But now God says, I'll pour out the spirit of grace and supplications upon you. And this is what will happen. When God pours out his spirit, they shall look upon me whom they pierced. And they shall mourn. Not, they shall mourn and then look. It doesn't work that way. But they shall look, and looking they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

Now, this is what it means. It means, Bobby Estes, as you look to Christ, you see your sin, and you repent of your sin. He pours out his Spirit on you, causes you to look to Christ, And the more constantly you look to him, the more you see your sin and lament your sin and bitterness because of your sin while you rejoice in him.

All right. Let's see again. John chapter 16. John chapter 16. I'm deliberately spending my time this morning on this, because this is the most important thing presently for us to deal with. John chapter 16. This is what I want you to see. There is no salvation. without this Holy Spirit conviction. Nobody is saved. Nobody ever has been or ever will be saved in this gospel age apart from being convinced by God the Holy Spirit of these three things.

Look here, John chapter 16, verse 8. Our Lord Jesus says, when he is come, he will reprove. If you have a marginal reference, the word means convince. Convince when the Spirit of God gets working on a fellow Ron. He doesn't try to convince him anything he convinces He just he'll convince you I mean convince you in your heart you'll convince you Convince you he will convince the world not everybody in the world if that was so everybody be saying What he's saying is he'll convince everybody chosen and redeemed by God's grace in Christ's blood He'll convince them throughout the world of sin, your sin, your sin.

What kind of sin? Look at this, verse nine, because they believe not on me. Here is your condemnation, here's your condemnation. And when God the Holy Spirit convinces you, you'll be convinced that you deserve to go to hell because you do not believe on the Son of God. That's exactly right. So, well, what have I ever done that caused God to pour out his wrath on me? You said God's a liar. Unbelief. Unbelief's the worst sin in the world. If you're going to categorize sin, this is worse than homosexuality. This is worse than adultery. This is worse than murder. This is worse than abortion. Unbelief, our Lord says, is that sin for which the sodomites will stand in judgment and say, we better do what? Read for yourself in Matthew chapter 20.

He'll convince the world of sin. Number two, verse 10, of righteousness. He'll convince you of righteousness because I go to the Father and you see me no more. You read that and scratch your head and say, what does that mean? This is what it means. You'll be made to understand that when Jesus Christ was made to be sin and God forsook it, and laid him in the tomb. And now he arose from the grave and ascended to the Father. Righteousness is established. It's done. It's done.

Number three, end of judgment. Not future judgment. You were born convinced of that. That's what caused you to be terrified of dying. You were born convinced of judgment to come. Your conscience is the finger of God, tormenting your heart every day with guilt and judgment to come. Oh, but now the conviction of God's spirit is judgment day. Look at it, of judgment, because right now the prince of this world is judged.

Back yonder in Genesis chapter three, verse 15. When God pronounced the first gospel message, he said to the woman and to Adam, he said, I will put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. And the seed of the woman shall have his heel bruised, but he shall crush the serpent's head. And then redemption is accomplished. That's it. What does God, the Holy Spirit convince folks of? Your sin. His righteousness, judgment finished in the substitute. Has God convinced you of it? That's true repentance.

Now, sometimes that involves great emotional upheaval. Sometimes it comes gradually. Sometimes it comes on folks little by little. Sometimes it comes all at once. But I'm telling you, Lindsay, nobody is saved until they're convinced in their heart of their sin, Christ's righteousness, and judgment finished by his substitutionary work.

All right, now look at this. Here are three, are these faithful women mentioned in verses 40 and 41? There were also women looking on afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalene. You can read about her in Luke chapter 7. Out of whom the Lord cast seven devils. Mary, the mother of James the Less. I had looked that up. I had forgotten what that meant, James the Less. I thought, what's that referring to? That's sort of like us saying James the short fella. That's not talking about James the Less since he was a lesser man or a lesser disciple, but he's just little James, little James. Folks call me Big Don, same thing. I'll just be Little Don. Mother of James, the last son of Joseph, or Joseph. And Salome, very common name in those days. Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him and ministered unto him. And many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.

Then in verse 47, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, beheld where he was laid. And I read that And I have to ask some questions. Where was Peter? Who said, Lord, I'll go with you to judgment and to death. Where were those other apostles and disciples who all said the same thing? The men, all of them, except John and even John, had fled and came back and stood afar off at a distance. All of them had fled. They were gone. But these faithful women were faithful to the end. They followed the Lord Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem, over a hundred miles. When all others forsook Him, they stayed with Him. They stayed during all the horrors of that infamous day. They followed Him right up to the tomb, and they were found there on the morning of the resurrection.

Now, there's much could be said here, but let me just Call your attention to a couple of things. These women are held before us as examples of faith. God often uses the weak to confound the mighty. He often does things just the exact opposite of what we expect him to do. And this is what faith does. It follows Christ. Just follows him. Just follows him. And those to whom much has been forgiven, they love much. Mary Magdalene, prime example, Luke chapter seven.

Why is this so important to you? Well, you don't know who I am. Oh, you wouldn't have to ask that question. Why is the cause of Christ so vital to you? Well, you don't know what he's done for me. You wouldn't have to ask that question. Why do you get so excited about forgiveness and redemption and grace? Oh, if you ever experienced it, you'd never ask that question.

And then these women ministered to the Son of God. These dear ladies were not like the religious feminists of our day. I'm not here to get on a political bandwagon. Feminism, though, is just utter nonsense. These women were ladies. And if you women want to know anything about it, pay attention. They knew their place and they kept it. They weren't allowed to be teachers and preachers in the kingdom of God. That was strictly forbidden by our Lord and his apostles. I don't make any apology for that.

Somebody doing a review of my book on the church some years ago, I said, boy, in that church down there, women aren't allowed to be, women aren't treated with respect. I beg your pardon. I beg your pardon. You're a blooming liar. That's just not so. That's just not so. But the Word of God is treated with greater respect. No, I don't care what the age calls for. I don't care what the age says. I don't care what men do. I don't care what the rest of the religious world does. In this place, we abide by the Word of God. We won't have any female preachers, missionaries, teachers. It won't happen. It's just not going to happen. Not here.

Somebody called me up one time and asked me if I'd send in Resume for a big church. I said can't you imagine what would happen first time? I had a meeting with a board of deaconesses No, I don't think I will you keep your deaconesses and I'll say where I am But these women were faithful servants of God They didn't get magical. I won't do anything if I can't teach I won't do anything I can't preach out if you won't let me be a decadent or be equal to me. I won't be anything. Well, no you can't But you can serve God if you want to

Oh, blessed is that husband and that family where a woman knows her place as a loving wife and mother and feels it well. Happy is that congregation where women are like Mary and Martha, women like Dorcas and Phoebe, women like Elizabeth who minister to the Lord by ministering to his people of their substance with a meek and quiet spirit.

Now then look at verse 42. And notice something here about this secret disciple. Joseph of Arimathea, we don't know much about him, but when even was come, because it was the preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counselor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly to Pilate and crave the body of Jesus. Then he bought some fine linen after he took it down from the cross and wrapped his body and put it his own too.

God always raises up men to do what's needed at the time needed according to his purpose, always does. We have a tendency to be a little fearful for God's calls and God's kingdom and God's purpose, but he's got plenty of Josephs around. Probably nobody else could have done what Joseph did. Nobody else could have gone in to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus with boldness, but Joseph did. He was a counselor, a leader among the Jews. The Lord, you see, has many disciples, many more than any of us ever imagined. Many more, many more. We must never forget our words, Lord, to Elijah. I have yet 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. He got his hidden ones. And when he needs them, according to his purpose, he'll call them out.

And then Joseph wrapped the Lord's body in fine linen, later did it too. Wrapped it up in that linen which represents his holy humanity and represents the fine linen clean and white myrtle with which you and I shall be arrayed forever. The righteousness of the saints, his righteousness given to us. And as he was buried and arose, we were buried and arose. And one day soon, we shall rise in the resurrection unto everlasting glory. Amen.